2. Contact Info

3. Dealer Selection

Acura has had a tough time hawking its RL flagship luxury sedan these past few years. With U.S. monthly sales in the double digits for all of 2012, it’s refreshing to hear from an Acura rep that the biggest thing the new RLX shares with its predecessor is the first two letters of its name.

Indeed, the majority of the car has been redesigned for the new model year — enough to market the car as an all-new machine for a very new era. With increased comfort and luxury a priority for the car’s middle-aged, baby boomer target market, the RLX has a wheelbase and track stretched 2 inches over the RL’s, giving it an improvement in interior space, especially in the limo-like rear cabin, where 38.8 inches of legroom is enough to best the Mercedes E-Class, Audi A6, and Lexus GS.

Despite its increased interior dimensions and slightly increased width, overall vehicle length is roughly the same as on the old car, meaning it’s not any tougher to park or maneuver. In fact, if anything, it’s slightly easier to steer this full-size luxury car around town, thanks to Acura’s new Precision All-Wheel Steer system. PAWS alters thetoe angle of the rear wheels with steering and braking input, making the car more agile and stable when being driven quickly, as well as slightly reducing the car’s turning radius.

Acura freshened up the exterior design and skinned the doors, front fenders, and engine hood in aluminum. (The total weight of the RLX is down more than 160 pounds on the RL; it’s also the most aluminum-intensive Acura since the original NSX supercar of the 1990s.) Acura’s designers went for strong horizontal character lines along the side of the car, with a distinctive pair of jewel-like LED headlights up front that will likely become a familial feature in models to come. The overall design is more elegant than flashy, in line with Acura’s current sedan styling directive.

The interior has also been revamped. Our car was trimmed in high-quality, well-stitched leather and looked worth every penny of its price. The most distinctive new feature will be the twin LCD display screens. The upper screen primarily displays the navigation, and the lower one is for radio and climate controls. It’s an evolution of Acura’s previous system’s single-line monotone display for audio and climate settings, and with its new full-color screen and haptic feedback, it works well. The next-generation version of AcuraLink also rolls out with the new RLX, using a button on the ceiling — OnStar style — for route information, vehicle assistance, emergency services, and other features based on subscription level. (The most basic features are free for three years.)

The RLX also introduces several Acura “firsts” that we suspect will trickle down to other models in time. The engine is an all-new 3.5-liter V-6 that features both direct injection and cylinder deactivation (Variable Cylinder Management), along with Acura’s proprietary VTEC variable-valve timing setup. Though the engine has been slightly downsized from the RL’s 3.7-liter six, output is up by 10 hp for 310 hp and 272 lb-ft of torque. A revised six-speed automatic remains the only transmission choice, and Acura’s Sportshift sequential paddle shifters are mounted on the steering wheel. Fuel economy is said to be 20 mpg city and 31 mpg highway, with a combined rating of 24 mpg — a 22 percent improvement over the outgoing RL.

Other Acura firsts in the RLX aim at taking safety to the next level. The RLX is the first Acura with an active lane-keeping system, knee airbags, and revised adaptive cruise control with what Acura calls Low-Speed Follow — the ability to brake the car all the way down to a stop when the car ahead stops, without driver involvement. Acura expects the RLX to garner a Top Safety Pick + rating from the IIHS when tested later this year.

The majority of the car was redesigned — enough to market it as an all-new machine for a very new era

We got a chance to sample the RLX around some of Northern California’s finest wine-country roads in Napa Valley, along with a brief stop at Sonoma Raceway (formerly Infineon and Sears Point) to sample the car on a short-track configuration. On the road, the RLX is comfortable and fairly quiet, with excellent isolation from wind and engine noise, thanks to new acoustic glass and added sound-deadening, but a little more tire noise than we’d like finds its way inside the cabin. Nevertheless, for a car that Acura markets as a somewhat sporty offering, the noise is acceptable.

The ride is on the sporty side of comfortable, with generally high levels of compliance and control. Acura’s new belt-driven electric power steering is light and somewhat lacking in on-center feel, though it feels precise when carving through curvier roads — a benefit in our testing environment that made for an entertaining drive. At the track, the Acura proved surprisingly fun to drive for a front-drive sedan, lacking heavy understeer in eight-tenths driving and giving generally neutral behavior. The brakes felt strong without being overassisted and grabby, but even in Sport mode the manual shifts via paddle were a little slow — both up and down — for track work. We predict fewer than 1 percent of RLXs built will ever set tire to track, and found the shift times adequate for road use for the other 99 percent of RLX drivers.

A hybrid all-wheel-drive RLX is under development, with a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, 370 hp, and a goal of at least 30 mpg combined. After a brief drive in a prototype, we’re able to say it’ll be worth the wait. Sales for the FWD RLX start in March for impatient folks.

2014 Acura RLX

BASE PRICE

$49,345

VEHICLE LAYOUT

Front-engine, FWD, 5-pass, 4-door sedan

ENGINE

3.5L/310-hp/272-lb-ft DOHC 24-valve V-6

TRANSMISSION

6-speed automatic

CURB WEIGHT

3950 lb (mfr)

WHEELBASE

112.2 in

LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT

196.1 x 77.4 x 57.7 in

0-60 MPH

6.0 sec (MT est)

EPA CITY/HWY FUEL ECON

20 / 31 mpg (est)

ENERGY CONS CITY HWY

109 / 169 kW-hrs/100 mi

CO2 EMISSIONS

0.82 lb/mi (est)

ON SALE IN U.S.

Currently

Share this article

We’ve Temporarily Removed Comments

As part of our ongoing efforts to make MotorTrend.com better, faster, and easier for you to use, we’ve temporarily removed comments as well as the ability to comment. We’re testing and reviewing options to possibly bring comments back. As always, thanks for reading MotorTrend.com.